Whirlpool has suspended 39 employees in Indiana who were seen smoking after declaring themselves eligible for a $500 annual tobacco-free health insurance discount.  (Click here for more.)  Most large employers that have corporate wellness programs involving rewards and fines have generally relied on the honor system, as opposed to investigations or surveillance.  What some see as […]

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This week’s tip is on over-documentation.  Although the substance of this post wasn’t what I had in mind when I did the this tip-of-the-week, I suppose this would also be a form of over-documentation for a prostitute and her john.
In case you missed it, the Man Gene struck again recently as described in a Slate […]

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This blog has contained numerous posts about documentation, an important part of almost every aspect of employment.
But is it possible to overdocument?  In a word, yes.  How so?
Documenting insignificant or trivial matters–If you do this, it makes all your documentation questionable.  Documentation is for important stuff.  If you throw in everything, a court is likely to think about throwing it all […]

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In a non-employment law case, the U. S. Supreme Court issued a decision on March 25, 2008, that has implications for the arbitration of disputes about discrimination and other employee rights provided by statute.  The case is Hall Street Associates v. Mattel, which involved an arbitration agreement entered into after a dispute had arisen and […]

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Are you kidding?  You’re not suggesting that I consider ditching something that’s as old as hiring and firing?  Yep.
Don’t have performance reviews if:
–They aren’t honest about employees’ deficiencies and designed to help them improve their performance.
–They aren’t given timely.
–They aren’t consistently given to all employees.
–They don’t cover the entire review period (not just the last […]

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Covenants not to compete are a subject that both human resources professionals and employment lawyers deal with. They’re also the subject of lawsuits. Check out the articles from three states on this sometimes vexing topic: one from the Idaho Employment Law Letter, one from the Montana Employment Law Letter, and one from the Wisconsin Employment Law […]

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Have you ever been in this situation?  You’ve got to fire an employee.  He simply can’t cut it.  You’ve tried to work with him.  You’ve given him coaching, counseling.  You should’ve fired him some time ago.  He’s not only doing a poor job.  Now, he’s hurting morale.  You’ve simply got to fire him.
But you don’t […]

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As noted previously on this blog, it’s sometimes difficult to get supervisors and managers to do performance reviews and handle discipline in an honest, timely fashion.  Even when honesty and timeliness aren’t shortcomings, something else tends to fall through the cracks.
If an employee is disciplined, she is told, one way or the other, to change her ways.  […]

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You’re a new supervisor.  Maybe you’ve been brought in from outside the company.  Maybe you’ve been promoted from within.  In any event, you’re now in charge of a department, and you supervise the employees in that department.
You work hard to get to know your employees.  You assess their performance as quickly as possible.  You provide […]

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The art of firing requires a look at how to handle the firing itself.  And sorry, but this will take a little more space than the previous posts on this subject.
When you’ve determined that an employee must be fired, there’s a final checklist of sorts which needs to be considered. 
(1) Review the handbook or policy manual […]

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